Home at Hartford: Day By Day

October 20 Thursday – Sam and William J. Hamersley traveled to New York and met with Charles Webster at his engraving office [MTBus 171].

October 20 Friday – George Gebbie wrote from Phila to Sam wanting to “renew the discussion” about the “Library of Humor” book after not corresponding for a year [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Return no answer to this fraud.”

October 20 Monday – Sam spoke at a Mugwump Rally, Allyn Hall, Hartford, introducing Carl Schurz, the main speaker. His remarks as Chairman are published in Fatout’s Mark Twain Speaking, p.186-7. Thomas W. Russell, a director of the Connecticut Fire Insurance Co. introduced Sam [MTNJ 2: 74n26]. Note: James G.

October 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, advising him to get a new set of plates for the printers. If Sam remembered rightly, 150,000 impressions was the life of the plates. After that, the impressions would not print clearly. [MTP].

October 20 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a short note to Elizabeth E. Jenkins. He’d forgotten about the $25 Livy borrowed from her. He enclosed a check [MTP]. Jenkins’ identity was not determined.

October 20 Thursday – Joe Jefferson, well known actor, wrote to Charles Webster that he had contracted for his book to be published elsewhere, due to a long delay by Webster & Co. To make a firm offer [MTNJ 3: 338n113]. This loss added to the growing split between Sam and Webster.

October 20 Saturday – Henrik Cavling in Brooklyn, wrote a short note to Sam. In French. Holger Kersten has graciously translated: “Perfect, Sir, I will be happy to visit you Monday evening” [MTP].

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam that his letters were received and noted. “We will make various notes of matters that we wish to speak to you about when you come down….Mr. Hall contemplates a trip to Boston andpossibly to Washingotn, to stir matters in those places” [MTP].

October 20 Monday – Susy Clemens wrote about life at college:

I am glad of course that I am in Bryn Mawr as I was working all last year to get in and now that I am here there is a great deal that I enjoy most thoroughly. The work is delightful and the people are lovely and altogether Bryn Mawr is an ideal place, but oh! it does not, can not compare with home! [Salsbury 283].

B.C. Stickney wrote from Brooklyn asking Sam to “Please set me down for one copy of your book on the land question, if you should write one” [MTP].

October 21 Tuesday – The Clemens family left Elmira and Quarry Farm and went to New York, staying a day or two before leaving for Hartford [MTLE 4: 111]. Note: Susan Crane in a 1911 letter to Paine gave the date the Clemens family left Quarry Farm as Oct.

October 21 Thursday – Sam and Livy made a quick shopping trip to New York, probably spending one night there and leaving Oct.22.

October 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House about P&P and the delay of his planned visit due to the “unholy decorators” and House’s attack of gout.

“I am mighty glad your first judgment of the book still holds good. The approval of competent minds is the main thing; I strongly want the book to achieve that; that it should sell well is a very much less important matter” [MTP].

October 21 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam typed a response to his sister Pamela Moffett all about autographs and how he hated to give them out. He thought it a silly practice, save for those he knew. His sister had requested an autograph or a book for the Schroeters (Schroters), who had been business partners and neighbors to the Moffetts at the outbreak of the Civil War. It was the Schroeter house that Sam “hid out” in prior to running off to join the Marion Rangers.

October 21 Wednesday – Sam borrowed $100,000 from Samuel G. Dunham, director and treasurer of the Dunham Hosiery Co. of Hartford, a friend of the Clemens family. (Note: this is not Samuel C. Dunham, Hartford atty.) The loan was to cover publishing costs for Grant’s Memoirs, with $15,000 payable Jan. 29, 1886 and $85,000 payable Feb. 27, 1886 at six per cent interest.

October 21 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Rollin M. Daggett, his old friend from Virginia City days. Daggett had written earlier when Sam was in Elmira, advising that he was writing a book about the legends of Hawaiian natives with the help of David Kalakaua, the last king of the islands whom Sam met in 1866.

October 21 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Hjalmar Boyesen, inviting him to a dinner with Charles Dudley Warner, Joe Twichell and others [MTP]

Sam also wrote to Count Claes Lewenhaupt, which probably sets the dinner date mentioned above:

Mrs. Clemens & I beg the pleasure of your company at dinner at our house at 6.15 p.m. next Monday [MTP].

October 21 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Susan L. Crane, assuring her that financial security was hers, with her securities and the royalties from the Paige machine. Sam was full of optimism. He even referred to her late husband:

I hope Theodore hovers about us & is still interested in our efforts & victories; in which case it has pleased him to hear the emissary of the greatest of newspapers order 33 machines & forget to ask what we are going to charge him for them [MTP].

October 21 Tuesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam:

Our poor dear mother is losing ground. She has almost quit eating and hs long alternations of sleeping and restlessness…weakness increases. We are trying a few drops of King’s cure for consumption for her cough. [Orion included a few pages of history for Sam’s game] [MTP].

James A. Ford wrote from Sioux City, Iowa asking Sam to use the Single Tax as the basis for a book [MTP].

A.P. Freund wrote from Chicago asking Sam to use the Single Tax (land question) as the basis for a book [MTP].

October 22 Friday – A receipt with this date shows Livy purchased five hats and a pair of stockings from Annie Bailey on W. 12th street in New York City [MTNJ 2: 358n6]. Note: It’s doubtful she would have gone to the city alone, so Sam and Livy probably made a quick trip there between Oct. 19 and this day, since Sam was home on Oct.

October 22 Saturday – Sam was the guest of the William D. Whitney family in New Haven, Conn., where he spoke on “mental telegraphy”  at a meeting of that city’s Saturday Morning Club, a young ladies’ social and cultural group similar to Hartford’s chapter. Sam’s notebook has an entry for Marian P. Whitney, William’s 20-year-old daughter, at 246 Church St., Oct. 22, 12 to 1 PM [MTNJ 2: 359 & n12]. (See also Oct.

October 22 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Henry L. Pierce (1825-1896), Boston industrialist, past Massachusetts Representative to Congress, and twice mayor of Boston—also friend of the Aldriches. Sam lobbied for Pierce’s support to put a “Mr. Edmunds” on the ticket as an Independent for the Presidency, an action Sam felt:

“…would work absolutely certain defeat to Blaine & save the country’s honor” [MTP].

October 22 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster with the financial matters of the loan from Dunham, whom he did not name. Sam repeated that since he’d made himself personally liable for the notes, Webster needed to fully insure the books, both finished and unfinished.

“I mean, get all the insurance you can on them” [MTP].

October 22 Friday – Charles Webster wrote from N.Y. that he’d sent two copies of Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Hartford for Harriet Beecher Stowe to inscribe. One of the books was for Julia Grant, the other for himself. (See Dec. 16 entry for a third book she inscribed.)

I think this is the first instance where I have bothered you on the autograph question, and it will be the last [MTNJ 3: 262].

October 22 Monday – In the evening in Hartford, Sam received Henrik Cavling in Hartford, as requested by Christen Thomsen Christensen of the New York office of Drexel, Morgan & Co. on Oct. 8. Cavling was a Danish journalist in the U.S. covering the 1888 election. Mark Twain’s works were quite popular in Denmark.

October 22 Tuesday – William Dean Howells received Sam’s Oct. 21 and sent an answer that Elinor Howells was not well and not likely to be all winter. The two men shared the curse of puny spouses. However, Howells hoped to come alone.

October 22 Wednesday – Edwin Reed wrote from Chicago to Sam: “I take the liberty to send you, by current mail, copy of a brief I have drawn up in he pending suit, Bacon vs. Shakespeare.” Sam wrote “No Answer” on the envelope [MTP].